Sunday, January 27, 2013

Patrick Administration Destructiveness in Context

I have submitted the following letter to the editor of the Cambridge Chronicle:

Editor
Cambridge Chronicle

Actions by the Patrick administration have dramatically communicated contempt for the environment by Governor Patrick.

Workers on the Commuter Rail bridge under the BU Bridge used for parking the last refuge of the Charles River White Geese to the east of the BU Bridge. If we had a responsible state government, they would have parked under Memorial Drive as did the BU Bridge workers.

This last undestroyed area has had severe past damage by the state’s agents destroying ground vegetation and by sporadic irresponsible parking by state workers.

This time it was five weeks parking by about ten privately owned vehicles starting in early December.

The governor’s response to our complaint was noncommital. In other words, “tough”.

Now the environmentally destructive Charles River “Conservancy” has put out the following report:

*****

Just before the end of 2012 Transportation Secretary Davey issued a change order to the Anderson Bridge and asked for a change to the design of the River St. and Western Av. bridges to clear the path for future underpasses.

*****

This group and friends in the Cambridge Machine have been fighting for destruction of the environment under and adjacent to both sides of these three bridges.

Massive destruction is related to these projects. It includes further heartless attacks on Magazine Beach and the Goose Meadow, plus destruction of the parking lot at the end of Magazine Street and devastation of the magnificent 105 tree grove at the Memorial Drive split.

These actions follow years of outrages at Magazine Beach: walling it off from the Charles River, starvation of the Charles River White Geese, dumping of poisons, decrease of size of the playing fields and destruction of the boat docks, plus the extension of destructive bushes to the Goose Meadow.

These actions follow a totally unnecessary mass animal kill as part of the destruction of acres of Alewife for “flood storage” that project cannot provide but which can be provided under nearby properties. The Machine is stalling enough that many of the nearby properties may be no longer available.

Then you have the mass tree destruction on the Cambridge Common and Flagstaff Park using state money.

There is no longer anything ambiguous about Governor Patrick’s environmental destructiveness. The nicest comparison I can give with regard to the Cambridge Government and the Cambridge Machine is that, at least, there is no reason to think that Governor Patrick has contempt for women’s rights.

2. Women’s Rights.

The corruption of the Cambridge city government is only exceeded by its hypocrisy.

These self proclaimed “holier than thou”’s got a very strong come uppance in the case of Malvina Monteiro v. Cambridge.

Judge, jury and appeals court panel condemned the Cambridge City Manager in no uncertain terms because he destroyed the life of department head Malvina Monteiro in retaliation for her filing a civil rights / women’s rights complaint.

The Cambridge City Council was unambiguous power to fire the Cambridge City Manager for malfeasance in office.

The Cambridge City Council has had exactly zero attempts to do so and exactly zero votes to implement the Court decisions by firing him.

3. Environmental Destruction.

The letter is excessively moderate.

The heartless abuse of the Charles River White Geese has been supported by the Patrick administration by its clearly stated indifference to the parking outrage.

My letter was not able to detail the start of an environmental nightmare being increasingly forced on the Charles River White Geese. These 32 year residents of the Charles River have been starved by the bizarre wall of introduced bushes walling off the Magazine Beach playing fields. That bizarre wall is being duplicated in half the tiny area to which they have been heartlessly confined by the planting of such bushes occupying half the area.

The half that has not been under attack by this outrage has just been attacked by the parking of approximately ten privately owned vehicles for five weeks, when a responsible government would have parked those vehicles under the very close Memorial Drive overpass in a parking location used for BU Bridge repairs.

The basic issue is how low can you go that differences are irrelevant.

It is very nice of the Patrick administration not, apparently, joining the corruption of Cambridge in the field of women’s rights, but he really has not had a chance to join that level of corruption. The automatic assumption is that he would never stoop so low. But the outrages listed in my letter to the editor all fall under the “They would never stoop so low” category.

About Me

Sponsored by Friends of the White Geese, Bob La Trémouille, chair/editor. Friends of the White Geese has worked since 2000 and has been a recognized Massachusetts, USA non-profit organization since 2001. Our goal is to defend the environment on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA, USA.